


Mrs. Pinkerton

by Autumn_Llleaves



Series: Kate Pinkerton [2]
Category: Madama Butterfly - Puccini/Illica/Giacosa
Genre: Angst, Family Drama, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-14 20:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28551702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autumn_Llleaves/pseuds/Autumn_Llleaves
Summary: After Butterfly’s suicide, all Kate wants to do is fulfill her promise and raise little Sorrow as her own son.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Kate Pinkerton [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109996
Kudos: 1





	Mrs. Pinkerton

**Author's Note:**

> Prequel to “The Festival of Dolls”, I recommend reading the latter first as this fanfic spoils “The Festival”’s ending twist.

_Where’s Mommy? Will she be back soon?_

Sorrow’s voice still rang in Kate’s ears, even though the boy had fallen asleep. She explained to him that his mommy went away for a long time and asked her to look after him. He hadn’t been able to calm down for a long time, calling for Mommy and “Auntie Zuki”, crying something in Japanese and in English, and sobbing – he had probably felt the lie in Kate’s words. She tried very hard to stop her voice from shaking, at least when she talked to him, but apparently she hadn’t done a very good job.

There was a knock on the door.

“Kate? Kate, sweetheart?”

She shivered as she heard that voice. Only this morning she thought she knew that man well.

Even when Mr. Sharpless said the Japanese girl had had Ben’s child, Kate didn’t realize the truth, or maybe didn’t want to realize it. Things happen, after all. Children can be conceived after careless affairs. It wasn’t the boy’s fault that his parents had once felt a burst of fleeting passion.

Fleeting, indeed! Kate saw the house, adorned with flowers. She saw the grief-stricken maid. And then she saw Butterfly herself, whose bright eyes grew dim and dull the moment she understood Ben wasn’t coming back.

Ben… If only he had remained there. If only he had tried to speak with the girl himself. If, if, if… But he ran away. He ran, leaving Kate – Kate! – to apologize and ask about the child. As if they were dealing with a restaurant bill rather than the fates of several people.

The knock on the door came again.

Kate went out into the living-room – they were given a spacious suite. The consul had probably made arrangements, hoping they would take poor Butterfly’s child.

“What?” she asked, shutting the door. “Sorrow’s asleep, stop that noise.”

“Kate, you see, I…” Ben stared at the floor, as if the necessary words could be seen there. “I didn’t think Butterfly… would take it so seriously.”

“I’ve talked to Mr. Sharpless,” she whispered, barely holding back tears. “Everything you have blabbered about, the short fleeting passion – it was all a lie. You married her.”

“My dear, that kind of marriage is easy to dissolve in Japan, and I was sure Butterfly understood…”

“You’re horrible! Good God, it’s just revolting to listen to such excuses! How can I be certain you don’t have a dozen other wives around the world whose hearts you’ve broken simply because marriages in their countries are easy to dissolve? Or why even bother to look in other countries? If you find yourself a prettier American, with your talent you can as easily leave _me_ behind! _I was sure Kate understood_!” she mocked, barely keeping her voice down: only the thought that Sorrow was asleep in the next room stopped her from yelling.

Ben grew scarlet and shuffled his feet. Finally he managed to speak:

“But we… we’ll take the boy in, right?”

“I did say I’ll raise him like my own flesh and blood,” Kate nodded.

“Er. Yes, he’s a nice boy.”

“If you don’t have any pressing matters to talk about, I’ll go back to the bedroom.”

Ben stared at her:

“Won’t you be staying in the living-room for the night, like me?”

He still believed nothing would change between them! However, she had no strength for more quarrels today.

“I need to stay by Sorrow’s side, in case he wants anything.”

Wants anything… The kid wanted one thing in the world: for his mother to come back.

* * *

In the consulate, when he saw Mr. Sharpless, Sorrow smiled for the first time since Kate had seen him. Mr. Sharpless clearly knew the boy: he gave him some candy, and Sorrow thanked him cheerfully.

“Thank you for your support, consul,” said Kate. “I don’t know how I’d have managed without you.”

“It’s nothing, ma’am,” he replied sadly. “It’s my debt to Butterfly… since I couldn’t save her.”

Kate swallowed, trying not to burst into tears, and knelt down to meet Sorrow’s eyes (he was dedicatedly chewing on a piece of fudge).

“Come, my darling. Now you and Dad and I will board a large white ship and go on a sea voyage. A real sea voyage – won’t it be exciting?”

“Is Mama on the ship?” asked Sorrow, and her heart clenched:

“No, kitten, she’s not there. She… she’s gone to another place, on very serious business.”

“I want Mama,” he wrinkled his nose and began to cry. Kate took him into her arms, kissing his mass of golden curls.

All that time, Ben had been awkwardly standing on the doorstep, but now he spoke out:

“Kate, wouldn’t it be better to just tell him you’re his Mama now? He’ll be in tears till San Francisco otherwise.”

She looked at him. Was it she who married this man four months previously? Why, for what reason? His round face and confused half-smile were repulsive. After these last words, something turned upside down in her soul.

“I know more of child-rearing than you,” she snapped. “I’m the woman here, not you.”

The consul coughed, embarrassed, and Kate bethought herself: she should have been more cautious in public. 

He ordered a carriage and accompanied them to the _Lincoln_ – a wise decision, as it turned out, because right when Kate stepped on the gangway, Sorrow panicked and sobbed, talking rapidly in Japanese. Luckily, Mr. Sharpless hadn't come far away from them, so he turned back, lifted the boy up and managed to sooth him and even convince him to switch to English.

"Don't be frightened, baby," Kate repeated too as they finally reached the deck. "Look how pretty this ship is! Tomorrow we'll be going over there, far away..."

But Sorrow, though he had stopped crying, wasn't in the mood to admire the ship. Ben felt awkward whenever he saw the child, and Kate realized, with revulsion, that he tried to stay as far away from them both as possible, glancing uneasily at Sorrow.

How could a human being have such a pathetic soul? Kate used to trust him. She was so happy and proud four months ago at the wedding, marrying such a brave and handsome sailor. Had she now found out what men were really like? It seemed she had... Her father, too, had been seen in certain disreputable houses after Mother's death (and some said, even before that).

* * *

When Kate brought up divorce for the first time during a quarrel (quarrels had become a daily occurrence since their return aboard the _Lincoln_ ), Pinkerton didn't take her seriously. He was in the Navy, and her ancestors had arrived on the _Mayflower_ , and people in such families don't get divorced. Besides, there was no ground. He wasn't a drunkard, he didn't beat her, and he didn't visit any loose women. They had a child together, for goodness' sake, even though it wasn't Kate's own!

On the following day she talked of divorce again. Pinkerton decided not to pay attention. It was nothing. Grocers' wives regularly threatened their husbands with frying-pans, and Kate, being from a different class of society, apparently decided to threaten him with divorce.

After about a month she announced:

"There's a ship sailing soon to Nagasaki. I want to take Sorrow to see his home and visit Suzuki and the consul."

"Katherine!" he cried. "Whatever for?"

"His mother was Japanese, in case you've forgotten," he heard these hated steely notes in her voice. She had never spoken to him like that during the first four months of their marriage. Why, why was he burdened with all this horrid mess concerning Butterfly? Why couldn't Butterfly, as any other self-respecting geisha would have done, marry some samurai, so that he, Pinkerton wouldn't get burdened with a Japanese-looking boy whose very existence caused painful stings of conscience?

"The boy is always downcast," Kate continued relentlessly. "You have a mission soon..."

"A short one..."

"Nevertheless. So Sorrow and I will go to Nagasaki and get some fresh air instead of just sitting here and waiting."

It sounded fair enough. Moreover, the traveling could do Kate some good as well. She had turned into a fright. Always annoyed by this or by that! She even took to sleeping in the spare room! Pinkerton had even begun to think he had made a mistake in picking a wife.

"Fine, you go," he nodded. "That's a nice idea."

* * *

_Stop this nonsense, you are a responsible man, not a boy, you are the States' blasted representative in this city,_ Sharpless told himself for the tenth time. It was useless. He couldn't get Kate Pinkerton out of his head.

During her first visit, he had liked her, of course – her pretty face and auburn locks would impress any man. But back then, there was nothing more to it. Now, however, as he saw her motherly care for little Sorrow, her kindness towards Suzuki who didn't even try to hide her hatred for Kate... Sharpless was completely enchanted.

It didn't stop at that. He was known to Sorrow and the boy was always delighted to meet him, so Kate (he had long stopped calling her Mrs. Pinkerton in his thoughts) visited him frequently. He tried to talk to her as little as possible, he truly did. But then one day she appeared in tears after accidentally meeting Cio-Cio-san's uncle (she never gave him the details, but Sharpless could imagine the old man shouting at her) and suddenly asked:

"Do you think, sir, that it was wise to open the trade with Japan the way we did? They seem to be bitter about it..."

He could have lied that he was busy and had no time for lectures on history and politics. He could have, but he didn't.

Since then, hardly a day had passed without them discussing all sorts of matters.

"I do believe, Mr. Sharpless, that there's a lot the Japanese can teach us. For example, their respect towards the elderly..."

"Mrs. Pinkerton, do you think these decorations are appropriate for the consulate's building to mark the Emperor's birthday?"

"Have you ever been to other places in Japan, sir? Suzuki's been telling me about her relatives in Kuma... Kumamoto..."

* * *

"We're due to leave the day after tomorrow," Kate said gloomily.

"You don't seem to be very glad about it, ma'am," said Sharpless.

She chuckled bitterly. They were having tea in the consul's house (after an authentic tea ceremony that Sharpless had learned from the locals). Sorrow was playing with plush toys on the floor and looking at some pictures Suzuki had given him.

"I'm not glad in the least," she blurted out. "I don't want to ever return to that cad! If it hadn't been for Sorrow, I would have divorced him!"

She was frightened the moment the words left her mouth. In front of another man, too! All her life, she had believed "divorce" to be practically a curse word. At the very least, it only concerned the families of criminals or of hopeless drunkards, or some lecherous bluebloods like Henry VIII. She certainly hadn't thought she would ever seriously consider divorcing her own husband!

"Leave him and get that divorce," said Sharpless suddenly, with a fervor to match hers. "He is a good-for-nothing husband and will certainly be a good-for-nothing father. He certainly doesn't deserve you!"

Kate's heart skipped a beat. She looked at the consul. She had long harbored her suspicions: she noticed the long looks he gave her, and the exceptional warmth in his voice whenever he addressed her, and the handshakes that lasted slightly more than necessary... Now her suspicions had been confirmed.

 _Ben also seemed very gentle and was very gallant in courting you_ , she reminded herself and wanted to brush the topic off politely and say her goodbyes – when her eyes fell on Sorrow.

She needed to raise her child properly. For that, she needed money. Where would she get it?

Her father, of course, wouldn't understand her and would take Ben's side: he mistrusted even the Spanish, thought them all to be social-climbers, she didn't want to think what his opinion of the Japanese would be... Who else could she turn to? She knew no other close relatives – her parents moved from the East Coast not long before her birth and rarely told her about the relations they had left there... And even should Kate find some uncles or aunts, where was the guarantee that they would help her raise her son by herself instead of ordering her to return to her husband and stop bringing shame on the family?

While here, in Nagasaki, here was this well-off American consul, whose very position would prevent him to openly leave her or take another woman...

* * *

Sharpless didn't know what came over him. Probably he decided to speak out after Kate's own burst of honesty... But how improper he was! If Kate was outraged and told someone about it, his career could suffer...

Kate didn't look outraged, though. She smiled cheerfully and took his hand:

"You wished to tell me something, Mr. Sharpless?" this tone was like a bucket of cold water to him. Maybe Kate believed she was a good actress, but the flirtatiousness in her voice was pathetically fake.

"Mrs. Pinkerton, I beg of you to stop it," he freed his hand. "I don't know why you need such cheap taunts, but I can see through them."

She blushed:

"Forgive me. Please forgive me! I had the impression that you... towards me..."

"Yes, over the past weeks I've fallen in love with you like a perfect idiot, but I have my pride! I don't need your pretended flirtations!"

"I don't need them either," Kate pressed her hands to her cheeks. "Mr. Sharpless... would you want to marry me if I were free?"

"Kate, don't you see?" he said so quietly she could barely hear it. "I would be happy to."

"Sorrow needs a father, and he is fonder of you than of Ben or even of me," she whispered. "While I – even if I start to work – have little money of my own. When I'm able to get the divorce from Ben..." she suddenly paused.

Sharpless was dizzy with elation. Had Kate really agreed to marry him? Yes, it was mainly for Sorrow's sake, but it was something already! He'd make sure she never once regretted it...

"It won't do," Kate shook her head. "If we are divorced, Sorrow's custody will be given to Ben! He is his son and no relation to me! Ben doesn't drink too much, he – formally – treats the kid well enough, and there will be no reason for him to lose the custody!"

But Sharpless had already realized what he had to do:

"Everything will be fine, Kate, don't worry. Sorrow will be staying with us. I'll only need a quick word with Suzuki."

* * *

Instead of Kate and the boy, the _Josephine_ carried a letter. Pinkerton reread it twenty times, unwilling to believe his own eyes. Kate serously wrote that she was staying in Japan for good and going to seek a divorce! Balderdash! Female hysteria! What on earh was there in Japan for _her_? And how was she planning to return the kid to him? Was she going to send the three-year-old alone across the ocean?

Because of that foolishness of hers, Pinkerton was once again forced to walk down the gangway onto the soil of Nagasaki, overwhelmed by unpleasant memories. The address Kate mentioned in her letter was a bit familiar. Was it that house he had rented for Butterfly? No, it wasn't that...

Only when he turned to the necessary street, it dawned on Pinkerton that it was Sharpless's house.

Kate was there, sitting on a bench in the garden and reading some book.

"Katie! At last!" Pinkerton exclaimed. "Stop this nonsense, let's go home."

"No," she said.

"What... why?"

"I told you quite firmly I want a divorce," Kate said coldly, closing her book and standing up. "Either you file for divorce because I've abandoned you (which is true), or you drag me bodily back to the States and I file for divorce for cruelty. Either way, our marriage is at its end."

"K-Kate! You have no right!" Pinkerton grabbed the fence, nearly tripping over in his astonishment.

"I have all the rights. It was you who had no right to treat poor Butterfly the way you did."

Again! Was he to be reminded of Butterfly till the end of his days? All right, he could have behaved better towards her, but what now? Was he to be nagged about it forever?

"Kate, I can't raise the boy on my own..." he began when the house's doors opened and Sharpless came outside.

"Lieutenant Pinkerton, good afternoon!" he smiled. "How are you doing? We haven't seen you in quite a while. Do come in. Tea?"

"Sharpless! Just the man, with your knowledge of laws!" Pinkerton said. "Please talk some sense into my wife, I beg you. She is demanding a divorce."

"Yes, she told me. It is her right, and I have to admit I am powerless," the consul said.

Pinkerton shuddered. A divorce was something he didn't want on his record.

"But I can't raise my child without a wife!" he said again.

Sharpless blinked in confusion:

"What?.. Mrs. Pinkerton. haven't you told him?"

"Oh, yes, I forgot it completely!" Kate cried. "I was sure I wrote it in a postscript to my letter..."

" _It_ what?" Pinkerton asked suspiciously.

"I'm sorry to say that Sorrow isn't your son. To be blunt, he is mine," said the consul.

Pinkerton coughed:

"What do you mean – yours? He looks like me, anyone can see that! He is blond and blue-eyed!"

"I'm also blond and blue-eyed," Sharpless reminded him mildly.

"You... you treated Butterfly like a child! I remember how angry you were when you learned I was marrying a fifteen-year-old!"

"You are right, but still. I am not made of iron. Two months after your departure I visited your wife – she was weeping uncontrollably, she was so heartbroken, well, I had to console her, and there it was... She was fifteen, but she looked a grown woman."

Pinkerton couldn't take it all in. Kate leaving him, the child having a different father...

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?" he asked, clinging to a last desperate hope.

"Poor naive Cio-Cio-san was sure that any kid born to a married woman was her husband's. It would have been painful for me to explain otherwise. I didn't tell you anything either because she wanted to trust _you_ with the boy. But after you divorce your wife, there will be no one to take care of Sorrow in your household! I can't allow that. No judge will take my son away from me: Suzuki and the midwives who attended the birth are ready to swear, at any moment, that Sorrow was born eleven months after the _Lincoln_ left."

Pinkerton felt a thundering in his temples, as if he had just drunk a lot of especially strong rum. He couldn't remember how he reached the ship and his cabin and collapsed, exhausted, on his bed.

_Why, for what reason is all of this happening to me?_

* * *

Kate stared after Ben. She hadn't expected that! Sharpless... no, John, she had to get used to calling him by his first name... told her he had some plan about Sorrow but kept her in the dark about the details till the last moment.

" _Whose_ son is Sorrow after all?" she asked, getting completely lost.

"Pinkerton's, naturally. I never touched Cio-Cio-san. But Suzuki quickly agreed to confirm the story I've just told Pinkerton... There is just one thing that troubles me: if Pinkerton takes the matter to every court possible and we are on oath..."

"He won't go to any courts, except to settle the divorce," Kate scoffed. "I know that for sure, he is too cowardly for that. Telling an entire jury about how he caused Butterfly's death? He'll never have the guts."

* * *

"Mama," said Sorrow. "Mama, you're so pwetty!"

Kate wiped away a tear. It was the first time – the very first! – when Sorrow called her "Mama". Before today, she had only heard "Aunt". Was it perhaps because, in her kimono, she reminded him of Butterfly? Who knows...

It was she who insisted on traditional Japanese clothing. As a sign of respect, first, towards the country, then, towards Suzuki in particular – they invited her to the wedding (though Kate suspected that Butterfly's former maid had accepted only because someone had to look after Sorrow). Suzuki would already feel confused in church, so at least the bride and groom's attire should be familiar to her.

It looked like Suzuki was pleased with that gesture:

"It suits you, ma'am. Looks very good with your hair."

"You look good, Kate," even Father deigned to say. When he heard that Kate decided to stay in Japan and Ben filed for divorce and that all of this began because of "some geisha's bastard", he had a long quarrel with his daughter. Only her new fiance's high position somehow reconciled Mr. Hensworthe to the situation. He offered his arm to Kate:

"We have to go. The consul is probably waiting for us already."

 _Sorrow called me Mama... And he'll have a truly caring and loving father, with some money, too. I know, of course, that after the honeymoon passes Sharpless... John will certainly amuse himself with some Japanese belles – what else can you expect from a man? – but he'll be at least smart enough to keep such pastimes away from my sight and the boy's. But the main thing is that my child will grow up in happiness and love! Suzuki doesn't seem to hate me as much as before, either..._ Kate was thinking happily as she went arm-in-arm with her father to the carriage. Suzuki and Sorrow followed closely, quietly but animatedly talking about the upcoming wedding in Japanese.


End file.
